With No Poll of Its Own, NBC Touts AP's on Bush Approval Sinking to Clinton's Lowest

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In the last couple of weeks, a CBS News poll found approval for President Bush at “an all-time low of 34 percent” and an ABC News/Washington Post survey pegged Bush's approval at “a new career low” of 41 percent. Without a presidential approval poll of its own with which to batter Bush, anchor Brian Williams led Friday's NBC Nightly News with how “the latest Associated Press poll has the President's job approval at 37 percent. For some context here, that matches President Clinton at the lowest point in his presidency.”

A week and a half ago, on the February 27 CBS Evening News, anchor Bob Schieffer trumpeted how “a CBS News poll out tonight shows the President's job approval rating has fallen seven points since the hurricane to an all-time low of 34 percent.” A week and a day later, on Tuesday of this week (March 7), on ABC's Good Morning America, Robin Roberts asserted: "President Bush's job approval rating has sunk to a new career low. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows the President's overall performance rating now stands at 41 percent.” (Transcript follows of how Williams opened Friday's NBC Nightly News.)

For details about CBS's poll and how the CBS Evening News covered it, as well as how it polled many more Democrats than Republicans, see this February 27 NewsBusters item. For a rundown of the ABC News/Washington Post poll and how ABC and the Post covered it, check the March 7 MRC CyberAlert.

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth provided a transcript of how Brian Williams led the March 10 NBC Nightly News, with the cited AP/Ipsos poll numbers displayed on screen, leading into a story on the fallout from the aborted ports sale to the UAE:

"Good evening. It can now be said, with very little debate, this is a very tough time politically for President Bush. And in very blunt terms, backed up by some surprising numbers, the American people have lately been telling him just that. The latest Associated Press poll has the President's job approval at 37 percent. For some context here, that matches President Clinton at the lowest point in his presidency. Sixty-seven percent of respondents, two-thirds of the people, said the nation is currently headed in the wrong direction. The President today acknowledged the reversal in that deal for a Dubai company to run U.S. ports, and he accepted today the resignation of the Secretary of the Interior, who insists tonight she is not leaving because of her department's associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. To start us off and look at all of it here tonight, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory."

See this NewsBusters item, "Nets Gratuitously Smear Gale Norton By Raising Abramoff in Noting Her Resignation," for how NBC, as well as ABC, connected Norton and Abramoff.